To coincide with Anglian Water’s announcement on the access it has chosen to its proposed relocated Waste Water and Sewage Treatment Plant at Honey Hill, between Quy, Horningsea, Teversham and Fen Ditton.
Save Honey Hill is deeply disappointed in Anglian Water’s decision to choose Junction 34 of the A14 with Horningsea Road as the access for the proposed new sewage works despite unanimous support from all bodies consulted to go with the option of a dedicated road from the lay-by on the north side of the A14.
Our District and County Councillors, Parish Councillors and Member of Parliament all rejected the options of access from Horningsea Road and High Ditch Road.
Save Honey Hill objects to the access from Horningsea Road because:
it goes against Anglian Water’s professed intention of giving priority to the concerns of ‘host parishes’
ignoring this opinion makes the process of consultation appear to be a sham
the rationale for rejecting this option, as set out now, was never fully explained during the
consultation
the road between Horningsea and Fen Ditton is a minor rural route (C210) which is already
dangerously over loaded. To its load, this proposal would add all the traffic generated by 3-4 years of massive construction plus all the daily traffic in operation, including nearly two hundred trucks per day, carrying sewage sludge (from other plants) or the by-products of sludge, in and out of the works
there is a weight restriction on this road which, both during construction and operation, AW would be allowed to ignore
this plant, a piece of nationally significant infrastructure serving a population of over a quarter of a million, ought to be linked directly to an arterial road and not inflict its access or impose its presence unnecessarily on adjacent village routes
throughout the design process, as it has progressed, AW has ignored the possibility of pursuing an ideal design – so, for instance, the possibility of building a new plant beyond the Green Belt, where neither the setting of the City nor that of some of its necklace villages are harmed, has not been explored. In the same way, independent access is readily disregarded as a clearly widely preferred possibility
the A14, at the point where the access could be formed, at present accommodates a very long lay-by which is heavily used by HGV drivers taking a break. These drivers must slow down to enter the lay-by and pull out slowly and sharply to leave it. If this arrangement is considered acceptable, then an on and off pair of filtering slip roads solely dedicated to serving the plant would form a safe substitute. The engineering at this point is easy and economical with the road and the adjoining land being at the same level
such an access would be restricted entirely to traffic generated by the plant – so it would be little used when compared with standard A road junctions. There are examples of such limited access points serving maintenance and emergency traffic off the M11 north of Bishop Stortford and serving the new bio-fuel plant outside Baldock on the A505.
Save Honey Hill objections are against the relocation of the City’s Waste Water Treatment Plant in principle. However, they also insist that if it is to be sited at Honey Hill the impact on the communities affected should be absolutely minimised.
Save Honey Hill 10/12/2021
